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Trenitalia - Ways to manage Economy ticket changes

Posted by on

Fellow Travelers,

I would love your input on my dilemma! I've tried exhaustive Google searches and e-mailed Trenitalia and still don't have any helpful information.

My husband, 17 year old son and I booked a trip to Italy from July 31-August 6 (upcoming). Unfortunately, we decided to cancel the entire trip because my son broke his collarbone in three places and had surgery two weeks ago. We were able to "bank" the money spent on United Airlines and cancel lodging and tours.

But, I can't figure out how to cancel/get a refund on our train tickets on Trenitalia. We have tickets to travel on August 4-5. On May 23, I booked Economy seats (vs. Super Economy) which will only allow a changed date/time but no refund. I saw on this forum that Trenitalia began an I Rimborsi offer for a small cost that would allow for flexibility for Economy tickets. But, I never saw that during booking and still can't find that offer on the website. I'm hoping there is some way to get at least a partial refund. I don't know if a plan B would be to move the tickets to my son's 2023 spring break dates and hope it works out.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Posted by
7322 posts

There is no way to get a partial refund, unfortunately (since you booked before that TiRimborsi offer).
And bookings aren't open for next spring so you can't push tickets until then, and you can only change dates once with an Economy ticket as far as I know.
There might be a way, but according to me, you are out of luck ☹️. Maybe check if you can claim some sort of travel insurance, as could be offered by some credit cards or any policy you might have purchased?
I wish your son a speedy recovery!

Posted by
9 posts

balso, thanks much! I love the idea of checking with my credit card company. We saw an x-ray of the collarbone after surgery. It looked like it got pieced together with a bike chain.

Posted by
16659 posts

Mary, here's the tirimborso info:
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/offers/tirimborso.html

I'm afraid that I read it the same way Balso does; that you would have had to have purchased this option at the same time you bought the tickets. As that's not the case, and you bought non-refundable in the first place, looks like you're out of luck as far as a refund goes. I'll hope as well that maybe your trip insurance (Did you buy any?) might help you recoup some of the losses.

Posted by
9 posts

DPLaunderville, exactly! I'm not trying to pull a fast one. But, I'm happy to go through the effort if there is a chance to recoup some of the $500 already spent. If not, that is obviously on me.

Posted by
8952 posts

Travel Insurance claim is your best option. Many credit cards do include some travel insurance coverage so the OP is wise to check on that.

I would like to point out that the economy ticket does allow for date/ time changes. Here is the quote from their site. "Changes date/time: Permitted, but passengers will be required to pay any resulting difference in price when compared with the Base price." Refunds are not permitted.

I hope he recovers quickly and completely. When you reschedule your trip, do look into either knowing you have good coverage through your credit card or purchasing stand alone trip insurance. The other thing to think about is getting a Cartafreccia discount card since your son would qualify for the "young" discount category for under 30's. He can't get this online, but he can get it by completing a form and emailing it in. Let me know if you want more information.

Posted by
34136 posts

that post suggesting reselling and not checking is gone, either pulled or zapped.

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